WEBER ELECTED OFFICIALS GET 4.8% RAISE

Elected officials in Weber County are getting a 4.8-percent pay hike next year, with the clerk-auditor-treasurer being paid the same as several other office holders.

"It's felt that elected officials should receive the same treatment as county employees," said Commissioner Lowell Peterson in explaining the raise.However, a Utah Public Employees Association spokesman complained, saying county employees have not received a cost-of-living adjustment.

On the average, each of the 600 county employees received a 2 percent merit increase in 1990, and one hundred or more of those employees received increases of 4 percent to 26 percent, based on a market survey of salaries, Peterson said.

The commission averaged of the two types of increases to reach the 4.8 percent raise for elected officials, he said Monday.

County commissioners will now make $49,607 a year, and the county attorney will earn $54,814. The five other elected officials, including clerk-auditor-treasurer-elect Greg Haws, will be paid $47,922. annually.

Cathi Smith-Elliot, a UPEA local governments employee relations representative, said county workers deserve 3 percent to 5 percent to help them "keep up with . . . inflation."

As proposed, "employees will receive no cost-of-living adjustment and only a 1, 2 or 3 percent merit hike . . . It's ridiculous," she said.